The Overhyped Korean Beauty Products You Don't Need In Your Life

Korean beauty has gone from being a novelty, to being a mainstream favourite in the skincare and makeup world. Innovative and, dare we say, extra AF, K-beauty brands have become global leaders, making many people more diligent and experimental about skincare. That being said, not every Korean beauty product is worth the hype, or even necessary in your routine.

We break down the ones which are utterly overrated and why they won’t work as well as you think they might.

Peeling gels which just don’t change a thing

If you’ve given peeling gels a chance and had your heart broken by the fact that your skin looks and feels exactly the same after using them, join the club. These products simply clump up and appear to be removing dead skin. However, after the product is rinsed off, your face doesn’t feel any softer, smoother, or clearer. So what do these even do?

Lip stains which never seem to apply evenly

Unfortunately, most K-Beauty lip stains end up making lips look like you just ate paan. While the pinks look slightly better, the uneven bleeding of these products and patchiness prevents even application, causing the colour to look really uneven. So, trust us on the fact that creating a lipstain with an actual lipstick is a much better idea.

Those white-looking CC and BB creams

Unfortunately, Korean beauty brands are pretty obsessed with skin whitening. So, even if a product doesn’t say it lightens skin, it does usually aim to. For instance, the limited shade range of BB and CC creams is an example of this. These products usually have a really strong cool-toned white cast, and make your face look ghostly in photos, thanks to the flashback they almost always have.

Now, this isn’t the only reason they are overhyped. Most of these BB or CC creams provide very light coverage, and are for people with already-flawless skin, making them ineffective in concealing blemishes. You’d think that since they don’t provide a lot of help in the makeup department, they would have decent skin benefits, but even that isn’t true. They aren’t very moisturising, despite being oily-looking, and the SPF in them ranges between SPF 20 to SPF 50. While SPF 50 is great, the products containing it usually look really white. Basically, then, it’s a lose-lose. Our suggestion? Use a regular sunscreen and apply makeup atop that.

Dewy-finish skin makeup

Koreans are obsessed with “glass skin” which involves an all-over shine on the face that makes skin look more youthful and hydrated. However, considering how greasy and sweaty skin can get in India, this doesn’t always look good. You see, matte makeup helps give an opaque coverage to skin with a lot of bumps and blemishes, whereas a dewy finish doesn’t do that quite as well. If you want glowing skin, all you need is a good highlighter in the right places- not oiliness across your pores!

Snail slime products for better skin

As the name suggests, snail slime is actually quite sticky and, well, slimy. The substance is supposed to be a protein-rich miracle-worker for skin. However, this is debatable. While many notice benefits from using snail slime products (strictly depending on WHICH product we’re speaking of), many simply believe it is nothing but slapping on gooey essence on the face. As someone who tried snail-enriched skincare to address blemishes, I can safely say that this only clogged my pores and lead to breakouts, instead of healing the scars left by old pimples. More interestingly (or not), snail slime isn’t very effective for dry skin either, sitting atop the face like a film of slime, not hydrating or plumping skin from within. Hence, many are still sceptical about what this really does.

An essence AND an emulsion AND a serum with the same texture

If you have oily skin, you might benefit more from using an essence, than you would from applying a traditional face cream. This is because essences are lightweight, watery sources of hydration for the skin which lack the oily thickness present in lotions and creams. However, in K-beauty routines, emulsions and hydrating serums often have the same texture and hydration capacity as an essence, making it redundant in your routine.

Furthermore, those with dry skin barely benefit from essences and emulsions, because skin drinks these up very quickly and gets dry in a matter of seconds again. So, incorporating ALL of these in your routine might just yield no benefits. Pick one, and stick to it.

Bonus: Sheet masks

Sheet masks are literally sticky territory, because what they provide is not worth what you pay to use them. Essentially, sheet masks are a skin-quenching dose of nutrition for your skin. But, priced at a minimum of 80 rupees a pop, these one-time use products don’t really do as much as one would hope they would.

First of all, they are not for oily or acne-prone skin in summer or humid weather, since their main function is moisturising skin and adding a glow. Second, they come with claims like skin-tightening, collagen-boosting, and a whole lot of other tall stories, which are technically not possible without invasive procedures or internal changes under your skin. That means they can only moisturise skin and make it look radiant for a few hours after application, not work miracles.